A projectile fired from a rifled barrel spins too rapidly for inexpensive rate gyroscopes to accurately measure the spin rate, attitude, and heading angle of the projectile. Typically, an inexpensive rate gyroscope is unable to measure spin rates over 100 Hz. Thus, projectiles that incorporate inexpensive rate gyroscopes are typically despun after launch in order to reduce the spin rate of the projectile to less than 100 Hz. For example, the spin rate of a despun projectile is slowed down by a protrusion of wings or buffers from the projectile body. In this manner, the inexpensive rate gyroscopes can measure the attitude and heading angle of the projectile in flight. An exemplary inexpensive rate gyroscope is a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) rate gyroscope.